Online Gambling Bill - Views & Opinions

[scrawnybob]

hi guys

post your thoughs / opinions / info on the US gambling bill here

this way I can keep the Online Gambling Bill / Poker Ban - Poker Sites Statements thread nice and tidy

cheers scrawnybob

[harry lime]

really great job you're doing with these up-dates rob. although i'm lucky in not being affected by this bill, i'm sure your U.S. members will really appreciate the work your doing here !

i've heard through the grapevine that the ipoker network is fairly close to following the on-line ban although i should say this was an unconfirmed report (but a good source).

[scrawnybob]

hi harry

cheers - its been along non stop day and going to be night as well - think this will take several days before I'm on top of it

I will try to get as much correct info up as I can as I get it

waiting for word on the Titan / iPoker front - there is a lot of chatter but nothing confirmed yet

I will also try to put up an offical word on sites that we dont affiliate for where and when I find good info
Bearing in mind that some are shifting around on how sure they are that they're staying in US market

The two sites that so far seem like good options for US players are -

Poker.com & Bodog - they have both taken pretty clear stance that they are not doing anything wrong and will continue

Alot of the others are more difficult to gauge - I think once they've made a statement to the effect of staying in they will be ok until the 720 days thing

cheers scrawnybob

[MADDCHILD]

Hi Bob,
ive been away from the site for a while but returned to find a great updated site!

looks better then ever and im looking forward to raking in some extra bucks!

[coinman]

After the Frist fiasco(self righteous S.O.B.) those of us in the U.S.(land of the free!) are soon to be an industry wide pariah. unfortunately it seems the wishes of the few out can supercede our personal liberties.



coinman

[harry lime]

Official Policy Statement from the CakePoker Team:

On Friday September 30, 2006 the 109th sitting of the US Congress passed a Port Security Bill including a rider that affected online gambling in the . The common media description of this act called it a ‘ban on online gambling’. This is patently false. All previous attempts at passing legislation banning online gambling have failed. Instead, this act championed by Bill Frist (R -Tennessee), attempts to prohibit payments to online gambling companies from US residents via US based financial institutions. CakePoker will not restrict access to our players from the . It appears that some of our competitors have decided to take this preemptive step for business reasons that are most likely related to the fact that they are publicly listed companies. In other words, they cannot be seen as doing anything that would put their shareholders in a ‘gray’ or precarious position. CakePoker N.V. is a legally licensed and privately held company in the country of Curacao, Antilles . As a privately held company we have no such pressures placed upon us.
Further, this act still has some stages to go through and it may take up to 9 months for the government to fully define and clarify the terms of the law and their effect on financial institutions. If/when this act actually becomes the law, our legal department will re-evaluate our policy on CakePoker’s acceptance of payments from US based financial institutions. At worst we expect to only have to limit some of the ways we accept payments from our players. However, as an alternative to accepting payments from US based financial institutions we have worked very hard to gain official acceptance as a legitimate business entity by some of the internet's most respected, non-US based financial institutions such as NETeller and Firepay.
Needless to say there will continue to be a lot of confusion and misinformation spread in the near future as online gambling companies, players and even lawmakers try to interpret the terms of the act.
Once again, our official position is that the passing of the Port Security Bill does not currently affect us or our valued, loyal players in any way. Our operations have always been 100% legal under Curacao law and comply with all the jurisdictions in which we carry out our operations.

[Dreamteam187]

in general our goverment is fucking retards. they spend time on this bill to destroy online gambling when they can just tax it and help the economy grow. the war in the iraq cost $3 billion a month and were fighting for democracy for people who dont even give a shit about us. the nearly 3k soildiers who died there basically died inveign and bush needs to get assassinated.

[JennyP]

The bill may win political points, but a $12 billion industry can work around it! No sane person can think that this bill will stop internet gambling in America. We got companies that earn quite a lot of cash from hosting online casino and poker rooms… as well as there are players that are willing to spend their money in their virtual casinos. No law can stop that.

Look at this article….

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15240569/page/1/

Gambling on the internet is NOT illegal like some people might think. Some poker rooms have banned players… but if you go to sites like pokerlistings . com you can see which poker rooms you should choose and the ones you should avoid. How hard can it be?

Marriages come and go... but the game will go on!

[scrawnybob]

hi Jenny

nice link and all good info - as said before the bill ISN'T a clear cut ban on online poker in the US - the bill may aim to bring it down but it's not what the bill is actually enpowered to do

The bill restricts the banks from allowing transactions with online poker sites - which isn't the same as a ban - the players are not criminalised by the bill - the pressure is on the banks to comply and really it is just making law what US banks have been doing for months - ie. US players can't deposit on credit cards etc

so no suprise everyone uses NETELLER

The main reason some sites have withdrawn is their responsibility to shareholders etc which is not the same thing at all.

BTW you don't need to go to pokerlistings to get up to date info on the sites and US players - 4kingpoker has the information and statements from site here

Statements from the Poker Sites Open / Closed to US players

and we have summary reviews and links to the sites that are open to US Players here -

Poker Sites Open to US Players

I will keep them updated as any new announcements come up from the sites

cheers scrawnybob

[Sheepodog]

I find myself annoyed at the spineless poker rooms that have bailed. I spent a lot od time and cash, making deposits at so many rooms so as to make it easy to withdraw funds when I won at a freeroll or buyin trny. So I'm gonna concentrate on the poker rooms that continue to allow USA players full access, because eventually they will all open up for us all again down the road